All Shades Of Green
by VivyPotter
Summary: Petunia's life was a series of greens, and they were coming to get her. "Her parents were green again. So was Petunia. Lily was emerald, a cut above the rest." Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and all rights go to JK.**

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><p>When Petunia was younger, a blink of those emerald eyes could get her to surrender her will completely. Just a wide-eyed gaze and a pleading 'Tuney…' could persuade her to take the blame, tidy up the mess and then give up her pocket money.<p>

Lily was perfect before Petunia wasn't.

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><p>Petunia grew green-eyed, but not the shade that she wanted. Her green was an ugly one, a sickly putrid yellowish shade that clogged up her lungs and poisoned her mind. It appeared every time Lily mastered a new instrument, discovered a new talent, got top marks in yet <em>another<em> test.

It wouldn't be for a few more years that she identified the awful colour. It was jealousy.

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><p>Lily did unexplainable things, and Petunia grew greener.<p>

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><p>Lily had magic. Petunia hated it. It was another thing to add to her list of perfect attributes. And worst of all, the glow around the book as it moved towards Lily?<p>

Green.

Honestly, Petunia was losing the will to _care_.

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><p>When Lily found a new friend, Petunia wasn't sure what she felt. For the past year she'd felt a sort of disinterest towards her sister. She felt… nothing.<p>

The best she could do was dully notice the colour of the smudges under the Snape boy's eyes.

A deep, dirty green.

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><p>Petunia stared at the ink of the letter, penned very neatly, a polite but firm rejection.<p>

It was emerald.

And for the first time in two years, Petunia _truly_ felt anger. And it was _red_.

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><p>Petunia watched the train as it chugged away, Lily's bright, waving face disappearing into the distance.<p>

She sighed as she walked back to the car. The air was green, soured by the argument.

She took a breath. Stale.

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><p>With Lily gone, their parents were grey. It was like the green, the red, the blue and the purple drained out of them, leaving smokey ghosts behind.<p>

Petunia was so _frustrated_. She wanted- _needed_- Lily's green, as her own colour was draining away and it _ached_.

But why wasn't she enough? Why wasn't it enough to just be her? Why couldn't she stop her parents from hurting?

Why was Lily's green the _right_ green?

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><p>The green-robed boy, talking animatedly to the red-haired girl. That was the green Petunia wanted to be. She wanted to capture her sister's attention effortlessly, hold it as securely as that boy was doing.<p>

A buzz ran through her body at the thought. She could _be_ that green.

The feeling of excitement fell as soon as it rose, only lingering with the faintest of touches at her fingertips. She would never _have_ that green, that green was for people with magic.

Freaks. Green _freaks_.

Petunia turned away.

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><p>Her parents were green again.<p>

So was Petunia.

Lily was emerald, a cut above the rest.

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><p>When the men with the white masks and black robes came, Petunia hid behind the olive-painted oak door as her parents were snuffed out in a flash of green light.<p>

Not even Lily's emerald could save them.

Petunia was right all along, she supposed. Green _was_ a cowardly colour.

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><p>Lily had the nerve to bring her greenness and boyfriend to Petunia's wedding.<p>

Petunia grabbed onto Vernon's arm and screeched for them to get _out_ before they infected the guests with their _unnaturalness_.

In revenge, the boyfriend turned Petunia's skin and hair red.

Oh how she hated him. With a deep and pure loathing.

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><p>Lily was gone. Her greenness was gone.<p>

Petunia felt empty. And somehow she knew that Lily had been stolen away from her, erased with a different _type_ of green.

And then the brat opened his eyes.

And Petunia knew that Lily's greenness wasn't gone, it was passed on and it was _following_ her and, oh, how she _hated_ it.

She hated him.

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><p>Every time he begged, those emerald eyes widened. The same eyes that used to provoke love within Petunia instead brought <em>red hot<em> _rage_ and she hit him, _beat_ the greenness out-

But the green flowered into bruises. She tried to scrub them off but they came back green and red and hurtful and-

It was haunting her. The green was haunting her.

She wished it was dead.

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><p>The boy came back and every year he was <em>more<em> green, _glowing_ with emerald success- until he wasn't.

Summer, and he screamed in the night, pleading for mercy and help that would never come.

Petunia wanted to choke him and hug him at the same time.

So she let him alone, ignoring the flashes of green in the corner of her vision.

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><p>The world was growing greener around her and she was the only one who saw it. She tried to tell Vernon about the clouds of darkness billowing over London, but he assured her she was tired. When she insisted, he looked at her suspiciously and asked whether she was a freak.<p>

She wasn't she wasn't she wasn't, so she took another gulp of pills that the Doctor promised would stop it and watched the green swallow the world up.

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><p>They were being taken away from the house and the green and she was so relieved. She hovered in the corner of the door, gazing pensively at the emerald child who managed to effortlessly exude a comforting perfectness that she <em>hated<em>. She wondered whether to warn him to flee, run far away from the green eating the world bit by bit.

She decided against it. She was sure the green would welcome him into their ranks. It always had for Lily.

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><p>She was in a new neighbourhood, and she had escaped the green, she was sure.<p>

But every day, she became less so. Her Duddy came home with green lumps and shadows where there _shouldn't_ be, and she was certain it was the greenness getting to him too. Vernon was becoming dirtier and polluted, coming home with the scent of cheap perfume fresh in the air.

She didn't know if the emerald boy was dead or not- she couldn't even remember his name- but it was eating her up inside. Somewhere, she was sure she should be feeling concern, but all she felt was an overwhelming _fear_, because the green was _coming_ for her.

She wanted it all to stop.

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><p>The green led her to the bridge, and pushed her to the edge. It held her hand as she hesitated and squeezed in encouragement, whispering 'you can do this, it will all stop, just <em>jump'<em>.

And she did.

And as she fell, her life didn't flash before her eyes.

She just felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and a _nononothisiswrongwrongwrongdontletitcontrolstopgreenstop!_

She hit the water with a crash and her back _hurt_ and everything was numb and oh god _help_!

The water laughed and waved her goodbye as she faded away.

Faded to shades of green.


End file.
